Welcome to the Harding Center for Risk Literacy

Christoph Wilhelm and Felix G. Rebitschek from the Harding Center for Risk Literacy at the Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane (MHB) and the University of Potsdam have been awarded the 2026 David Sackett Prize by the German Network for Evidence-Based Medicine (EbM Network). The award recognizes their research program evaluating the patient-relevant benefits and risks of AI-based decision support and evidence-based health information.

Their work examines the conditions under which artificial intelligence can improve healthcare—and when current evidence remains insufficient. A central focus lies on whether AI systems genuinely benefit patients, help avoid harm, and support informed decision-making.

A systematic review conducted by the researchers shows that AI applications are still rarely evaluated using patient-relevant outcomes. While some areas indicate potential benefits, the overall evidence base remains too limited for robust conclusions. In addition, potential harms, differences across population groups, and the transparency of AI models are often insufficiently addressed.

Further studies on generative language models demonstrate that, although these systems can produce understandable health information, they only partially meet the standards of evidence-based health communication. Shortcomings include the presentation of benefits and harms, absolute risks, uncertainty, and the quality of evidence. Even targeted prompting strategies (“prompting boosts”) improved responses but did not consistently reach the desired professional standard.

The Harding Center for Risk Literacy, based at the Institute for Health Services Research in Education at MHB, aims to strengthen risk communication and risk literacy at national and international levels, particularly in the context of healthcare and digitalization.

The award jury highlighted the high relevance of the research program for advancing evidence-based medicine. The prize will be presented at the EbM Annual Conference, taking place from September 30 to October 2, 2026, in Göttingen.